Reflections for GREAT

INTERNATIONAL ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN CHARITIES His Eminence Metropolitan Nicolae Reflections for the Romanian Orthodox Metropolia of the Americas Liaison to IOCC from the Assembly of Canonical JOURNEY Orthodox Bishops of the United States to Our journey to Holy Pascha, through the preparation and discipline of Great Lent, PASCHA offers an opportunity for reflection, renewal, and most of all .

That we have this opportunity each year reflects the fundamental human need to constantly, deliberately return to communion with God. So often we separate ourselves from His love through our own failings. Repentance provides a path toward renewed communion, a way—through God’s grace—to return to Him. Perhaps at no time in the year do we feel the need for repentance more strongly than during Great Lent.

For in this season, the Church guides us to more focused , , and - giving, offering the tools for repentance. These disciplines ground us with humbling reminders that all we are and all we have come from Him, the Father of Lights.

As we do this work, relying on God’s great mercy, it may comfort us to remember that we walk among the communion of . We are not alone. In these pages, IOCC humbly offers encouragement for the Lenten path we all walk, with that your soul may be refreshed in some small way.

It is my joy to invite you to once again begin the journey to Pascha, our Church’s greatest feast and our Lord’s greatest victory, the triumph over . May we each reflect this great hope by serving others as Christ asks—because He loves us and gave Himself for us! SUNDAY hosts of angels and the companies of mortal men, each in their different orders, keeps OF the feast.”

Rev. Father Timothy Sawchak The week before the Sunday of Orthodoxy, we hear in the these words from the Holy Church parable of the : “Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one Overland Park, KS of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me” (Mt 25:40). By feeding the hungry, Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our giving drink to the thirsty, taking in strangers, image, according to Our likeness; let them clothing the naked, visiting those in prison have dominion over the fish of the sea, over —we are serving Christ by serving others. the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing But, most importantly, on the Sunday of that creeps on the earth.” —GENESIS 1:26 Orthodoxy we celebrate and confirm that we are all of God. We, created in the image On the Sunday of Orthodoxy, we celebrate and likeness of God, serve each other with the restoration of the Holy Icons. From love as Christ Himself loved each of us. Let we hear: “O people of God, come us not relegate our understanding of icons to and let us celebrate a day of joy; the heaven only the images in our homes and churches, now makes glad, and earth with all the but to our living and breathing neighbors. SUNDAY OF ST.

Danielle Xanthos, MA, MDiv

We must pay closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it.

— HEBREWS 2:1

On the second Sunday of Great Lent, attention by drawing upon words spoken we commemorate St. Gregory Palamas. long before his lifetime: “Be still,” as God Fittingly, in the day’s , St. Paul told Cain. Through prayerful stillness reverberates prayerful words of the , of the heart, we become attentive to what reminding us to pay closer attention. we have heard.

How do we pay closer attention to what we What have we heard is the Word of God. have heard? Typically, we seek quietude. Certainly, we hear the Word through At times, however, perhaps more often than Scripture. Beyond that, however, the Word not, it is difficult to find a time or place to is God. Through prayerful stillness of the be quietly still in this world. Stillness, as heart, we cultivate a living relationship with long as it is dependent upon the conditions God—growing more perfectly united with outside of us, seems impossible. Thankfully, God, and by virtue of this union, we unite we have the example of the saints to better with each other. Through prayerful stillness understand a stillness beyond the noise of the heart, our service to others becomes around us. Truly a guiding light of informed by Christ Himself. Regardless of the Orthodoxy and a messenger of grace, chaos around us, a soul that is prayerfully St. Gregory, as a teacher and defender of still will keep anchored to God, lest we drift , reminds us how to pay closer away from Him. OF THE HOLY CROSS

Rev. Father John Salem

St. Elijah Antiochian Orthodox Church Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

The Lord said: “If anyone wishes to come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.”

— MARK 8:34

On the third Sunday of Great Lent, Mark’s Likewise, prayer is for personal spiritual Gospel reminds us that following Christ growth, not display: “When you pray, enter requires work. In this season, the Church into your inner chamber and when you offers fasting, prayer, and giving as part of have shut your door, pray to your Father this work. These disciplines are ways we Who is in secret” (Mt 6:6). “Should I not can each follow Christ. then pray in church?” asks the bishop. “Indeed I should, but with a right mind Commenting on another Lenten Gospel and not for show. It is not the place which (Mt 6:1 ff.), read during Great harms prayer, but the manner and the earlier in the fast, the Blessed Theophylact— intent with which we pray.” 11th and 12th century Archbishop of Bulgaria—suggests how we can achieve Finally, why do we pray? “Not to inform the goals set before us in a way. God of anything,” Theophylact writes, “but instead, that we may detach ourselves Giving alms is a private discipline and calls from the cares of life and receive benefit for humility: “When you give alms, let by conversing with God.” not your left hand know what your right hand does” (Mt 6:3). “The left hand,” writes This, in the end, is the aim of our Lenten Theophylact, “represents vainglory and disciplines and in part what it means to the right hand, almsgiving. Let not your take up our cross. May we each earnestly, vainglory be aware of your almsgiving.” humbly seek our Lord this Lent. SUNDAY As ever-blooming fruits, you offer the teachings of your God-given book, O wise OF ST. JOHN John, most blessed, while sweetening CLIMACUS the hearts of all them that heed it with vigilance; for it is a ladder from the earth Rev. Father Gregory Hohnholt unto Heaven that confers glory on the souls that ascend it and honor you faithfully.

— OF ST. Holy Trinity | Carmel, Indiana

St. John Climacus entered the ascetic arena in his teenage years, struggled as a hermit for 40 years, and then became abbot of the in Sinai. He wrote the Ladder of Divine Ascent in the sixth century.

The Ladder of Divine Ascent is most likely the foremost ascetical text in the Orthodox Church. We often think of the ascetical life as individual effort; an examination of conscience, a striving against the fallen passions, or sinful habits, to be formed more in the image of Christ. The ascetical life is often and rightly associated in our minds with the monastic life, though it is not the exclusive purview of and nuns, for all Christians are called to live the ascetical life.

And yet, one of the greatest ascetics of all time and the father of monastics, St. Anthony the Great, said, “Our life and death is with our neighbor.” The ascetical life, as given to us by St. John, is indeed focused on our interior struggle against the flesh, the world, and the devil. However, the ascetical life is not an end itself. The highest rung is love, and love primarily is about our neighbor. That is the end to which the ascetical life is given to us, so that we might overcome ourselves to better love God and our neighbor. SUNDAY OF ST.

V. Rev. Father Miles Zdinak

Saints Peter & Paul Orthodox Church Windber, Pennsylvania

“But I have heard that God Who was born of you became man on purpose to call sinners to repentance.”

—The words of ST. MARY OF EGYPT while standing outside the Church of the Holy Cross before the of the , unable to enter because of her impure way of life

Our impure ways of life albeit by our is the same as that of St. Mary: that is to words, our deeds, or our thoughts will confess we are sinners and are in need of always hinder us from approaching the repentance. We will never be able to be all-loving and merciful God in one way admitted into the Kingdom of God without or another. However, our Lord and Savior admitting we need repentance. can lead us out of the impurity into all righteousness no matter what degree of The desert of the Great Fast offers us so impurity we have allowed into our life. many opportunities to repent and move closer to God: from the Great to the The Great Fast is our desert of purification, weekly Presanctified Liturgies; from daily which can lead us out of sin into holiness. reflections and good works to our increased Just as the time St. Mary spent in the desert almsgiving; and from the led her out of her sinful way of life to a life of Holy and the Holy . purified by God’s indwelling in her, so too God has come into the world for the can our time spent in the Great Fast bring purpose of calling sinners to repentance. us to a purified life. Let us answer that call and join the journey that leads to a purified life. May you have The first step for us toward purification a blessed Pascha! Kingdom. It is established not through war but through love. Not through force but His Eminence Metropolitan Nicolae through humility. And we enter into it not through earthly power, success, or accom- Romanian Orthodox Metropolia of the Americas plishment but with the faith of a child. Liaison to IOCC from the Assembly of Canonical Orthodox Bishops of the United States On Palm Sunday we begin , the final road to the Cross. Turning human Let us come with branches to praise Christ the paradigms on their head, Christ’s humility Master in faith like babies, purifying our souls from birth to death creates our greatest hope: and crying to Him with a loud voice: Blessed a restoration of humanity’s communion are You, O Savior. —MATINS OF THE FEAST with God, a renewal of our true nature. Christ’s humility renders death powerless In pronounced contrast to the conquerors and brings us home to Himself. of His earthly day, Christ enters the city not on a powerful war horse or at the head of This Holy Week and beyond, may we imitate an army but on a donkey. This must have first the One who emptied Himself! May seemed absurd to anyone looking for a king we find assurance in His victory over death, to defeat the Romans. placing in Him the hope of our salvation!

From His birth in a cave to His humiliating Christ has risen from the dead. By death He has death on the cross, Christ’s incarnation trampled upon death, and to those in the tombs defies human expectations for His He has given life! — of Pascha IOCC, in the spirit of Christ’s love, offers emergency relief and development programs to those in need worldwide, without discrimination, and strengthens the capacity of the Orthodox Church to so respond.

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